Somehow I managed to miss the release of this cinematic atrocity when it appeared on television. I spotted the title in a bargain DVD bin. I was soon to find out why it was there. I knew from reading the cover that only Eddie and Kathryn from the original Vacation movies were in it, so I tempered my expectations. At least Randy Quaid is usually funny, I thought. As low as the bar was set, this movie managed to pass underneath it with room to spare. Absurd situations, terrible writing, almost completely devoid of humor. I hesitate to call what I saw "acting".A lot of wonderful work was done in several other iterations of the "Vacation" series, and there were some incredibly funny moments. This movie is an insult to the name, a blatant attempt by the studio to put more eyes on a grossly inferior product. This is the only time in my life when I have been tempted to return a $5 DVD.

First of all, I have to confess to not having found any of the previous Vacation installments particularly funny. They elicited a few chuckles but were otherwise so jaded that my eyes nearly fell out of their sockets with all the rolling I made them do.This abomination of a movie is so bad as to be positively criminal. Forget waterboarding; THIS is an example of a cruel and unusual punishment if ever I saw one. Christmas Vacation 2 is not only not in the least bit funny; it is actually just plain stupid to boot. The characters don't look, talk or act drolly, nor do they find themselves in comical situations. It's all terribly contrived and slap-stick (well, far more slap than stick, and I mean a slap in the VIEWERS' faces!). It's a testament to my masochistic tendencies that I braved through about a half of it, albeit over the course of three hours: I just had to stop and take sanity breaks after pretty much every scene. I gave up at that point and went out for a walk in a thunderstorm, hoping a lightning might bring me sweet relief.Even the presence of the jaw-droppingly stunning Sung-Hi Lee could not salvage this train wreck.I know this is not constructive criticism; it's just that this picture is beyond any meaningful critique.

If you always wanted to know exactly how Clark Griswold thought and felt about his cousin Eddie, and I mean REALLY understand Clark's animosity towards Cousin Eddie to a level beyond what was established in the Vacation movies, just watch this made-for-TV movie."Dumb" and "boring" are the two words that come to mind to explain this bomb.I don't really want to have to go through the movie again. All I can say is that this "sequel" is an insult to the original "Christmas Vacation" film. It's simply not very funny.But, at least the film does have a nice conclusion for Eddie that assures that he likely won't have to mooch off of the Griswold family for quite some time, and that would make Clark feel a whole lot better.

It'll be a blue Christmas indeed if you subject you're family to this. I loved the original movie, and this one was not worthy of being its sequel. Actually, for all intents and purposes, it is not its sequel. Only one character from the original cast returns. Granted, that character happened to be the hilarious cousin Eddie, but he simply is not hilarious being the protagonist of a movie. His niche is that of the wacky relative who performs zany antics--alongside Chevy Chase. Chevy Chase was needed in this film for it to be a success, and he definitely was not there. As far as I am concerned, a movie is not a "Vacation" movie unless good ole' Clark Griswold is at the helm.